Smear It Splendid
by allurement
Summary: [AU][SasuSaku] “Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?” There are no happy endings in this one, just inbetweens.
1. Chapter 1: Say Goodbye, Everyone

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter One: **Say Goodbye

_Tonight will be your last night_

_

* * *

_

"… Holy shit."

Uchiha Sasuke sighed. "Naruto—"

"Jesus Christ, do you have any idea how much paperwork this is going to take up?" Uzumaki Naruto continued. "Because I don't. I just know that we're not going to be able to see daylight for a good few days, seeing as how we'll be _swamped _in complaints and official documents until we won't even remember what the sun is. Not only that, but just look at my suit! My brand new suit! Blood, _all over it_, you look at it, Sasuke, _look_! You know how much ramen I could have bought with the money I spent on this? Do you know how—?"

"Naruto. You're giving me a migraine. _Shut up_." Sasuke took out his handkerchief and covered his nose with it. "Come on. We need to get back to Headquarters and report to Tsunade-sama."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but faltered when he turned around and saw the scene that surrounded them.

There was just so much blood everywhere. It had literally splashed onto the platform from under the train.

The old lady up top was going to get one hell of a report.

* * *

"No."

"Come on, you know you want to—"

"I said _no_."

"But baa-chan, why not?"

Tsunade sighed. "Do you think I'm going to let a couple of amateur twenty-somethings like you two handle something this big? No, Uzumaki. I'm putting my foot down on this. I'm not letting you and Uchiha take on this case. You're too young, and far too green to know what to do. Save it for when you're older, when you've seen too much death to be as fazed. You'd be begging me not to put you on it, then."

"But it's so _boring_, staying in the office the whole day," whined Naruto. "Plus, we haven't had a proper case, _ever_. All you do is send us out to scout cases but you never let us solve them! And after a while, hearing complaints about kids spraying graffiti everywhere just gets dull. Come on, boss, let us get out just this once, you know you want to. It'll be fun—"

"That's enough, Uzumaki!" barked Tsunade. She was furious.

"You've done it now," Sasuke muttered with a smirk, as Naruto cowered under Tsunade's glare.

"Do you think this is a _game_?" Tsunade demanded, banging her fist against her desk. "That this is some kind of a _joke_? Do you think that fifty four school girls committing mass suicide by jumping in front of a train is _funny_? Because if you do, then you need to get the hell out of my office and stay out until you get yourself a better sense of humour." Tsunade closed her eyes and massaged her temple with her left hand.

Sasuke scoffed and glanced at his partner. Naruto didn't even have the decency to look ashamed of himself.

"Fifty four. If it were one or two, maybe even three, it would have been dismissible. Some silly schoolchildren with too many problems and not enough coping mechanisms. But _fifty four_. How on earth are we ever going to be able to explain this?"

Sasuke spoke up. "Tsunade-sama. With all due respect, I think the idiot over there," he gestured towards Naruto, who let out an indignant snarl, "has a point with wanting to take over this case. He and I are probably the best candidates for getting to the bottom of it."

Tsunade's eyes snapped open, and she looked at the young police detective with worry.

"Oh, no. Not you too, Uchiha. Look, the only reason I let you and Uzumaki partner up together was because I thought you were sensible. I thought that maybe you'd be a good influence, rub off on him, but if he's slowly killing off your brain cells with his idiocy—" Naruto let out a sound of indignation, which Tsunade ignored, "—then I'll have no choice but to—"

"Tsunade-sama. That wasn't what I meant. I mean, that the girls who did this," and here his eyes flickered over to the notice-board, where the pictures of the station were, covered in blood, "they were still in high school, weren't they?"

Tsunade nodded wearily.

Sasuke continued, "We don't have any idea what is going on. We don't have a clue, because nothing about this incident makes any sense at all. So we're going to need all the information we can get, naturally."

Tsunade groaned. She could see where he was going with this. Damn Uchiha and his damn logic.

"Naruto and I are the most experienced pair amongst your young recruits. Obviously, we're too old to be in high school, but we're only twenty two. We can still pass off as a couple of high school students if need be, and investigate and gather as much information as possible. Frankly, at this point in time, we're your most viable option. No one would suspect a thing."

"Oh, and what makes you think that?" challenged Tsunade. She wasn't going down without a fight, even though she knew she was going to lose this argument. Uchiha Sasuke didn't graduate at the top of his class at the Police Academy for nothing.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. "Tsunade-sama, it's quite obvious that we're dealing with some sort of cult here. They're not going to appreciate police officials going around, banging down doors and flashing cards. It would be a lot more efficient to get the information from the inside. Naruto has the ability to befriend almost every person he meets and I'll be there to make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid. It's the perfect combination."

Tsunade had lost. She cursed Uchiha again.

"Fine. Whatever. But I don't want you two running off on your own, doing whatever you two fancy doing, completely ignoring regulations and protocol like last time, got it? I want you two to report to Headquarters every day with your findings or lack thereof, and if you two come up with nothing after a month, I'm taking you off the case. Got it?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Alright! Okay, okay, so when do we get started? Let's go right now and see whether we can—"

Tsunade groaned and wondered what she had gotten herself into.

"Uchiha! Get your partner out of my sight, now!"

As the two detectives were leaving her office, she swore she heard Uchiha mutter, "See, that's how it's done, dumbass."

Damn Uchiha.

* * *

**Hello Sakura-san!**

**Come and join our Suicide Club! There's a perfect fit for you here! We can die together!**

**

* * *

**

Haruno Sakura stared at the characters across her screen and scowled.

"Kiba! If this is you trying to be funny, you're failing miserably, you piece of dog shit!"

Kiba poked his head out from around the side of his computer and looked across the desk at her bemusedly. Noticing the glare she was shooting him with, he said, "Yes, Sakura?"

"Idiot," she spat, her scowl widening at his feigning innocence. "Sending me random creepy e-mails; don't you have anything better to do with your free period? I know for a fact that you're failing Physics _and_ Japanese History, so why aren't you use your time wisely and studying, instead of playing practical—"

"Sakura," he cut in, looking at her rather worriedly, "I literally have no idea what you're going on about, you crazy woman. I _am _studying. What do you think Shino is here for?"

Sakura peered from the top of her computer screen, and sure enough, there was Shino, looking completely oblivious (or was it apathetic?) to what had just happened.

"Oh. Hi Shino," she mumbled feebly, giving her classmate a sheepish smile. Now she felt really stupid. "Um. Never mind, Kiba. Forget I said anything. Sorry. Er—yeah. Just… good luck studying?"

Kiba rolled his eyes and muttered something about a girl's menstrual cycle, before letting out a frustrated sigh at his textbook, whining to his friend about not being able to understand anything.

Sakura turned back to her e-mail. Now she was really confused. There was no signature, no visible return address or any other additional information attached to the e-mail. It was probably just spam, but… how did they know her name then? Her brow furrowed as she hit the 'reply' button.

_Who are you?_ she typed. She pressed 'send'.

Sakura let out a sigh and looked down at her keyboard. Next to it laid that day's newspaper that someone had abandoned on her train to school. Sakura had already read the article seven times, but nevertheless, she brought the newspaper closer to her and had another flip through it.

She shuddered. Fifty four. The girls were from a few schools on the other side of Tokyo, so Sakura didn't know any of them, but still… _fifty four_.

A soft _ping!_ alerting her that she had a new e-mail made Sakura look up from her article. Her inbox showed the message was from an anonymous sender.

_That was fast_, she mused, before opening the e-mail.

* * *

**We are your salvation, Sakura-san. We're your family.**

**You are full of sin, Sakura-san. Let's shed our blood together, and kill ourselves before we have the chance to kill anyone else. Maybe then, God will forgive us.**

**

* * *

**

_That's it_, Sakura thought, and promptly pressed the 'delete' button, signing out of her account seconds after. She couldn't deal with creeps this early in the morning. Especially creeps who brought up religion. It was too complicated a subject to think about before lunch.

Another e-mail entered her inbox as she was leaving the computer lab to go to the library.

* * *

**The world is a dark place. You don't have to be alone, Sakura-san. Everybody has a place where they belong, and there's hope for everyone.**

**Even you.**

**

* * *

**

**A/N:**

So this fic, as some may have already noticed, is based on the Japanese film, Suicide Club, or Jisatsu Saakuru. The overall plot will follow through with the actual film, but the characters and sub-plots… well, not so much.

Rewritten! Nothing major, just to fix some grammatical issues & to make it flow, and what-not. This is basically because when I reread this (so I could write the next chapter), I cringed so much, it was all I could do to not delete the whole damn story. Expect other chapters to be rewritten, too!


	2. Chapter 2: Experience The Night Life

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter Two:** Experience The Night Life

_Time to turn off the lights, kiddies

* * *

_

"Okay, tell you what."

"What the hell are you—"

"Let's make this fair and square, yeah? Rock, paper, scissors, let's go!"

Uchiha Obito swung his left hand in front of him open with his palm facing down.

Rin sighed. "You are so immature. Like a child. And I would have picked scissors, so you would have lost anyway. Now run along like a good little boy and get our food, okay?"

Obito huffed. "Who says I would have lost—"

"Because you always choose 'paper', Obito," Kakashi drawled lazily from behind his novel. "It doesn't really take a genius to see that."

"I don't! What's your proof?"

"Why do you think you always lose the game, moron?"

"I don't always lose the—"

"You _always_ lose the game," Kakashi said, cutting him off without even looking up from his book.

Obito was about to pummel Kakashi into the ground when he heard a low growl. Both men froze.

"… Um. Yeah. That was me, guys. Sorry," muttered Rin apologetically. "But you know, if you guys would stop acting like a couple of idiots, and one of you actually went out to get the food, then we would all be happy. So, who's up for it?"

"I don't see why we can't just get something from the canteen," argued Obito weakly. "I mean, the food here isn't that bad, is it?"

One look from Kakashi and Rin shut him up.

"Just because you killed your taste buds long ago by eating random crap, doesn't mean we all have," said Kakashi, turning back to his book. "Now, go buy us food, slave."

"What did you say, you—"

"Okay, seriously. One of you go out and get the food now. Or else I think I might just eat one of you. And Obito, you're a bit bigger than Kakashi. More meat, you know? But hey, I'm too hungry to be fussy." Rin's stomach let out another growl, proving her point.

Kakashi and Obito looked at each other, sizing the other man up.

"Rock, paper, scissors, let's go!" Obito bellowed, and put his right hand in front, palm open and facing downwards, as Kakashi poked his fist out from the side of his book, his index and middle fingers sticking out.

"Sorry, Obito."

"Don't talk to me, bastard."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke entered the boardroom and took their seats, just as Tsunade had banged the desk for silence.

"Well. Now that I have everyone's attention, let's not waste any more time. I have assigned Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, who have so kindly showed up, _late_, to be in charge of this case. You lot will report to them, and only to them, and they will report whatever you say, plus any of their own findings, directly back to Headquarters, got it? However, every once in a while, if the case drags on, we'll hold weekly board meetings like this."

Here, Tsunade paused, and looked around the room. She sighed wearily.

"Listen up. We aren't going to treat this case as a crime. Yet. It was an accident, and all of you are to treat it as such until one of you finds proof that someone _made_ those girls jump off of that platform. But as of yet, there is no devious mastermind behind this, and if any newspaper reporters come up and harass you for details, I want to you tell them that there are none. This is a gruesome tragedy, plain and simple. All we have to do is find the connection between these girls to prevent more cases like this from happening and to keep the media from going completely ballistic. So. Any ideas on what could be causing this?"

"There have been a lot of suicides lately," Hagane Kotetsu mused. "Last week, four men were reported dead. Two of them brothers, living in the same apartment. One lived on the floor above them, the other two floors below. All hanged. The block of apartments are pretty close to the Shinjuku train station as well."

"Surely that's a coincidence, though!" Maito Gai piped up. "I was at the scene of one of the incidents, the one with the brothers. All of them were reported separately; they can't have anything to do with these poor girls, can they?"

"God know at this point in time," Tsunade muttered.

"They're not all from the same high school, are they?" Kotetsu inquired. "The girls, I mean."

"No they're not," said Sarutobi Asuma, lighting up a cigarette absentmindedly. He was the only one who had the guts to ignore Tsunade's smoking ban in the board room, just because his father used to be the Superintendent before he retired and Tsunade took over. "There are a variation of twelve schools, as of last count. All of them are high schools, all in the central to western region of Tokyo."

"Could they all have been part of a suicide cult?" Shiranui Genma had just arrived, and had taken his seat, fiddling with his toothpick before putting it in his mouth and chewing on it. "I mean, if these girls are roughly the same age, and their schools are from more or less the same area—"

"Of course not!" boomed Gai indignantly, cutting Genma off. "These girls were at the springtime of their youths! Why would such youthful blossoms even think about partaking in such ghastly extracurricular?"

"You'd be surprised Maito-san. Not everyone is as happy as they appear to be. Oh, by the way—Uchiha, Uzumaki, there's a phone call in your office for you guys. Some weirdo saying he knows something about the case. Anyway, I say that this is a result of watching too much television. All those tragic celebrities they read about in their magazines, as well. The Pied Piper and all that jazz, you know?"

Naruto leapt up out of his seat, stretched and proceeded to run out of the door.

"Good day, Tsunade-sama. Senpai-tachii." Sasuke bowed, before following his partner, albeit not as wildly.

* * *

"Stupid Hatake Kakashi," muttered Obito, fiddling around with his keys until he found the one needed to open the back door. The hospital was quiet nowadays. Admissions were at an all-time low as public hospital-care was improving, so more and more people were choosing to use their (free) services instead of paying ridiculous amounts of money for a (disgusting and old) private one, but Obito wasn't complaining. That just meant that Rin had to look after less patients and had more free time, and that he and Kakashi didn't have to be so alert. Not that they ever were, anyway.

Obito often wondered how Kakashi ended up being a night-guard at a private hospital. He knew that Kakashi used to be a private detective, and a damn good one at that, but a couple of years ago, he had suddenly quit and had gotten a job at the hospital where Rin worked as a nurse, and where Obito worked as a receptionist.

He stepped out and felt the cold wind blow in his face and shivered. He locked the door behind him, and headed to the Mexican restaurant a few blocks down from the hospital.

Kakashi hated Mexican food.

* * *

Sasuke entered his office to find Naruto swearing into the telephone and did what any other sensible person would have done in the same situation; he punched Naruto in the gut and snatched the handset away from him as Naruto let out a surprised yelp.

"Uchiha Sasuke here," he said into the phone.

"_Good evening,"_ replied an eerily pleasant voice. _"I assume you are the voice of reason here, Uchiha-san? Well, I've come to you about a very particular matter. It's bothered me for some time now…You know, the suicides."_

There was a pause.

"Go on," Sasuke said calmly, careful to not let out anything to the stranger.

"_Are you at a computer, detective?"_

Sasuke glanced to his left where his desktop was, and sat down in front of it.

"Yes."

"_Lovely. Just lovely. I've got a website for you to look at, Uchiha-san, if you'll be so kind as to visit it."_

"Hold on." Covering the mouth-piece, Sasuke told Naruto in a low voice, "Call Tsunade-sama in here."

Naruto nodded and sprinted off to fetch their boss.

Sasuke turned back to the caller and said, "Sorry. Please continue."

"_Go to __**w-w-w**__ dot __**m-a-r-u**__ dot __**n-e**__ dot __**j-p**__."_

Sasuke typed out the website address with his free hand and pressed enter. Seconds later, a black screen had loaded, with a large group of red dots appearing on the left, and a smaller group of white dots on the right.

"What is this? Is this some kind of joke?"

A tinkle of laughter. _"The red dots… are the women. And the white ones are the men. The ones that have killed themselves."_

The office door burst open, and Tsunade came striding in, Naruto following closely behind her.

"What is this?" she demanded, pointing at his computer screen.

Sasuke ignored her, and put the phone on loudspeaker as the caller continued speaking.

"_It took me a long time to figure it out, and even when I did, I still wasn't quite sure. I had a hunch, but that was it. After today however, I'm sure of it… what the dots represent, I mean. There were fifty four new red dots added. There are even more now."_

Tsunade made a few hand gestures to Sasuke.

"When did you find this? Are you investigating into the matter as well? Do you know whether anyone's behind this or not?" Sasuke asked, interpreting Tsunade's signals.

An amused chuckle._ "Patience, Uchiha-san, is a virtue. One question at a time, please. Well, well, well, where do I start? I found this website quite recently. It intrigued me, at first. That was it. No, I don't know whether anyone is behind it. Like I said, I was just browsing around a forum one day and I happened to stumble across this site. After those four suicides the other day, I saw four more dots on this list. It's a weird site, is it not? This is all there is on it. Have a look at the provider, and tell me what you find. I shall do the same. How does that sound?"_

Sasuke looked at Tsunade. She nodded.

"Understood. And what's your name?"

"_The Bat."_

Naruto snorted.

"No, I meant your real name," persisted Sasuke.

The stranger chuckled. _"The Bat will do just fine."_

Tsunade shook her head and swept her fingers past her neck.

"Alright. The Bat it is, then. Do you have a website?"

"_No. I do post a lot on a Bulletin Board System, though. Just go to this BBS and look for 'The Bat' there_—_**w-w-w**__ dot __**j-i-k-e-n-n-e-w-s**__ dot __**com**__."_

Sasuke watched as Naruto scribbled this all down onto a scrap piece of paper, and nodded to him. "Okay."

"_Wonderful. Well, it seems that I must leave you now."_

The screen flashed and refreshed itself automatically.

"Wait a minute."

"_Oh, you've just seen that too, have you?" _The caller let out another chuckle_. "I forgot to mention_—_the dots appear before the suicides are reported. In fact, I have a feeling that they appear before a suicide is even committed. You'll have to look into that claim though, detective. Anyway, I wish you and the police the best of luck."_

The line went dead.

* * *

**A/N:**

Just a note to some people who have reviewed/PMed me, asking about Sakura's character. Well, Sakura's role in this is completely original, meaning that her character isn't based off one of the characters from the film. This is why this story isn't going to turn out exactly like the film, seeing as how Sakura might trip, fall and mess everything up, as per usual.

Rewritten! I'm getting there!

(28.03.2010)


	3. Chapter 3: On Top Of The World

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter 3:** On Top Of The World

_Feeling the wind against your face, isn't the world such a lonely place?

* * *

_

"Rin?"

"Yes?"

"Please control your gastric juices. They're so loud, I can't concentrate on my book," Kakashi said, not lifting his gaze off his orange book. "They're so unladylike as well."

Rin stood up, clutching her stomach. "Well, it's not my fault! If Obito-baka had come back already, we wouldn't be starving like… like starving people!"

"Your eloquence astounds me," Kakashi replied flatly, sill not looking at her.

"Whatever, I am _starving_, Kakashi. But seriously, where is that idiot? It's been three hours already."

"Beats me," Kakashi said, looking up from his book and shrugging. "Bet you he's gone home already. His shift should be over by now."

"That little shit better not have, or I'm going to clobber him so had next time I see him, that his own mother wouldn't recognise him."

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow. "You're so kind and good-natured when you haven't been fed, you know that, don't you, Rin?"

Rin scowled. "Don't even get me started on you, pervert. I'm going to go check on one of my patients now; slap Obito for me if he comes back in the meantime."

Kakashi wordlessly saluted her back as she left the room.

* * *

"So you finally came in to see how the old artifact was doing now, did you?"

"Good evening, Chiyo-baa-san," greeted Rin wearily. It had been three weeks since she was supposed to have died, according to her doctors, and every extra minute she lived past that moment was another minute in hell for Rin.

"Hmph. Well, it took you long enough. I could have died, for all you knew. Lord knows I was supposed to have already."

"Sorry, Chiyo-baa-san," Rin apologised, and grudgingly prepared herself for the long night ahead. Without food.

Obito was going to wish he were dead if she ever got hold of him.

* * *

Kakashi was chuckling to himself.

This was probably the 10th time he had read this particular Icha Icha Paradise book, but it never ceased to entertain him so. Sure, it was mainly of the pornographic genre, but it was still _hilarious_.

Then, as he was getting to the really good part of the book—

The lights went out.

"Oi, Obito," Kakashi called out, unfazed. "Obito, you little dick, turn the lights back on."

There was no reply.

Kakashi sighed, got up and took out his torch that he kept in his belt and turned it on. "You better have brought back our food Obito, or I'm going to castrate you and then let Rin feast upon your flesh," said Kakashi pleasantly, his eyes closing in cheerful n-shapes.

He made his way to the light switch and flipped it on.

Nothing happened.

"Obito, you _sonofabitch_. I bet you brought Mexican food back as well."

* * *

"So, are you feeling any better, Chiyo-baa-san?" said Rin as patiently as she could.

"As good as an ailing old woman can feel. I wouldn't be surprised if I finally _died_ tomorrow out of the sheer pain of it all." Chiyo sighed dramatically.

Rin scowled. She had just pumped up that old hag with enough painkillers to put an army elephants to sleep; there was no way she could still be in pain.

"If you want, I can increase your dosage to—"

"No, no, no. That won't be necessary. Besides, the pain I'm feeling can't be suppressed by drugs or modern medicine. This sort of pain takes time to heal."

There was a long pause, in which Rin had an internal battle with herself as to whether or not to ask about Chiyo's personal affairs. She really didn't want to know more about the lady than she needed to.

"What happened, Chiyo-baa-san?" she finally asked. Rin had finished checking and ticking off items on Chiyo's observation chart and had dragged a chair and sat next to the old woman's bed. She had to admit, she was slightly curious about what the old hag had to exaggerate about this time.

"It's about my grandson, Sasori," she started softly. "I—He committed suicide last week, in his apartment. It was in the newspapers. Nothing front page-worthy like those girls who jumped in front of a train, though. That was horrific, wasn't it?"

Rin shivered. "Yeah, it was."

"My poor, poor Sasori," Chiyo said, bringing a wrinkled hand to her forehead. "He lost his parents when he was but a baby. From there on, it was just me and him, and my younger brother occasionally. We took care of him, but I suppose we were too old-fashioned to understand his needs in such a modern world. He was the only one who ever visited me here frequently. Ebizo would visit from time to time, but arthritis keeps him down, you see."

Here, Chiyo bowed her head, and looked so subdued that Rin couldn't believe that this was the same woman who would never cease to find something wrong with her food and had basically insulted every member of the hospital staff earlier on that very same day.

Rin's heart melted, and she gently took the older woman's hand into hers.

"Don't worry Chiyo-baa-san," Rin said, as cheerily as she could. "I'll come to visit you whenever I'm off duty, I promise!"

Chiyo smiled. "Why would you waste your free time visiting an old relic like me when you could be around more youthful people? I've seen you around the hospital with those two good-looking boys, always laughing and fooling around with them. You don't happen to be romantically involved with either of them, perchance? Or maybe _both_ of them?" Chiyo winked.

"I—Chiyo-baa-san!" cried Rin, horrified.

* * *

"Hello?" Kakashi called out into the darkness.

He continued walking, waving his torch around. "Look, twirp. I'm tired, I'm starving and you just interrupted my quality time with Icha Icha Paradise. Now, if you don't make the lights come back on _right this second_, you are seriously going to wish you were dead."

He stood in the darkness in silence for a minute.

"No? Okay. But don't blame me if you're missing your dick tomorrow," Kakashi said cheerfully, as he made his way to the mains' room.

* * *

"Okay, so everything seems to be alright here. I'll see you tomorrow, okay, Chiyo-baa-san?"

Chiyo nodded and thanked Rin as she left the room. _What a difference a heart-to-heart conversation made_, Rin mused. The poor old lady was just misunderstood.

Rin began walking back to the staff room on the top floor where she had left Kakashi, when her stomach let out a loud rumble.

She _really _hoped Obito had come back with their food.

* * *

Kakashi flipped the mains' switch and watched as the lights came back on. There was still no sign of Obito anywhere, and Kakashi made a mental note to find and slaughter whoever had turned off all the lights on his floor.

He walked back into the staff room, and found Rin there already.

"How was the patient?" he asked.

Rin sighed. "She's getting better, I suppose. Physically. Her grandson committed suicide last week, so she's not feeling too happy, naturally."

"Hm." Kakashi flopped back down on his seat and picked up his book. "Seems like all anyone does nowadays is kill themselves. Must be some new fashion trend or something. Heard about those girls at the Shinjuku train station? God knows what came over them. _Fifty four_."

"Yeah, that was just… horrible," Rin said absentmindedly. "Hey—Obito hasn't come back yet, right?"

"Nope," said Kakashi, flipping through pages in his book, trying to find where he last left off. "I personally think the little dip-shit's gone home and that we should beat him up tomorrow."

Rin laughed. Then she noticed an mp3 player on the table he was sitting at.

"Hey, Kakashi, isn't that thing over there Obito's?"

Kakashi looked over to where Rin was pointing at. "Yeah, it is. Funny. Didn't think Obito would leave something like that here."

Rin looked like Christmas had come early and picked up the mp3 player, turned it on and placed each earphone in her ear. Less than a minute later, she burst out laughing.

"No way!" she said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "This can't be Obito's, Kakashi."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure it is."

"I mean—if it is, the last song he was listening to was that stupid 'Mail Me' song from the Pudding Trio."

Kakashi froze. "You have got to be kidding me," he managed, before accepting a headphone that Rin held out to him and laughing heartily at their musically-retarded friend.

"I seriously can't believe Obito actually listens to those kids butchering pop songs. How old are they anyway, fourteen?"

Kakashi snorted.

"Try twelve. So much for the superiority of the Uchiha."

This sent Rin into fresh peals of laughter until the song had ended, by which she had calmed down for the most part.

Kakashi let out a sigh of content before handing back the earpiece to Rin and returning to flipping through pages, stopping when he found the right one.

"Ah, here it is. Hey Rin, don't disturb me now, I'm going to read my—"

The lights went out. Again.

"What the hell. Literally, what the hell." It was not a question.

Kakashi got up and walked across the room and flipped the light switch on for the second time that night.

Needless to say, nothing happened. Again.

"Okay, seriously, this is _not_ cool."

Kakashi heard Rin moving somewhere behind him, as she leaned over a table and opened one of the large windows in the room.

"It's cold out tonight," she murmured, so quietly that Kakashi had to strain his eas to even hear her. "Hey, Kakashi. What if—what if something happened to Obito?"

Kakashi felt uneasy. This was a completely different Rin to the one he was laughing with minutes prior. He walked over to where Rin was standing and clasped his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring manner.

"He's fine. I bet the idiot just realised his shift was over and ditched us to go home and sleep, the bastard."

Rin continued looking out of the window wordlessly.

Kakashi quirked an eyebrow. Rin was acting really weird. Was it just the lack of food?

"Look, I'm just going to go turn the power back on again. Are you going to be okay here alone? I know you don't like the dark. Why don't you come with me? I won't have to worry about you then."

Rin nodded mutely and pushed the windows open wider.

Kakashi let go of her shoulder and began walking out of the room. He stopped in his tracks when he realised Rin wasn't following him.

"Rin?"

Kakashi turned around and saw that Rin had climbed on top of the table and was currently standing on it, her hands pressed against the edges of the open window.

"Rin, what are you doing? Get down from there before you do anything stupid; you're making me nervous."

Rin turned her head and looked at him. With the wind gently blowing against the side of her face, and nothing but the moon and the city lights to illuminate her features, Kakashi thought she looked like something out of a dream. Gone were the tired eyes and premature age lines on her face; this was how Kakashi had imagined God originally intended for Rin to look like.

Rin held his gaze and smiled serenely. "Goodbye, Hatake Kakashi," she said softly.

Then, she jumped out of the window.

The lights came back on just as Kakashi yelled, running towards the window Rin had jumped out of.

Seconds later, an elevator door opened on the top floor, and a white duffel bag was pushed out and slid across the smooth, tiled floors until it hit the wall opposite.

The elevator doors closed, and it made its way back down to the ground floor.

* * *

**A/N:**

Oh Kakashi. DEAR, BELOVED KAKASHI WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS BE SO ALONE?

I think it's safe to say Rin's dead, what with her jumping out of a window on the top floor and all that.

And if someone mentions OOC!Kakashi to me, I shall eat several babies. But the only reason Kakashi is the way he is in _Naruto_ is because he's all alone. And the reason he was emo-ish when he was little was 'cause of his daddy and that his team hadn't melted his cold icy heart before they died. But they had plenty of time to do that here because _I'm defying canon laws_.

Rewritten! (28.03.2010)


	4. Chapter 4: Membership

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter Four:** Membership

_Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

* * *

_

"Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade looked up from the computer screen. "What is it?"

"There's been another suicide."

"You're sure it's a suicide?"

"Yes, madam. There was a witness who saw the victim jump out of the window from the top floor of a hospital."

Tsunade stared at the messenger for a few seconds before swatting Naruto and Sasuke's heads.

"What are you bumbling idiots waiting for? I want you down there five minutes ago!"

* * *

"Well, at least there's no blood here."

Naruto and Sasuke had arrived at the hospital and were looking around for anything suspicious.

"Come on. Let's go talk to the witness," Sasuke said, walking towards the hospital staff room.

They entered the room and saw a policeman in one of their units taking down the witness's details.

"Name?"

"Hatake Kakashi."

"Date of birth?"

"September 15th."

"And the year, Hatake-san?"

There was no reply.

"Hatake-san?"

"Never mind about that," interrupted Sasuke. "Just move on. I'll take over the questioning. You just go downstairs and make sure no one contaminates the scene."

He walked over to where Kakashi was sitting, while Naruto shoo-ed out the lower-ranking officers who were hanging about.

"So, Hatake-san, did you see anything strange?"

Kakashi looked up at Sasuke. "You mean other than the fact that I just saw my childhood friend hurling herself out of that window? No, not really."

Naruto scowled. "You're being awfully calm about this. You sure you didn't see anything? Was anyone else with you guys before the incident?"

"Yeah. But we sent him out for food and he never came back, the asshole." Kakashi's stomach suddenly let out a loud grumble. "Oops. Excuse me. Well, I did tell you, didn't I?"

Sasuke looked disgusted. "Right. Why don't you give us that person's name, so we can ask them a few questions?"

"Uchiha Obito. While you're interrogating him, ask where he went with our food as well, yeah?"

Naruto perked up. "Hey. Sasuke, that guy's surname is the same as yours. He related to you or something?"

"His father and mine are cousins," Sasuke replied flatly. "What else did you—"

"Wait a minute," Kakashi sat up straight in his seat. "You're an Uchiha, are you? I heard from Obito that you lot have been practically controlling the police force for generations. That's why Obito was ostracised from you guys when he came to work here. That, and because he wasn't some sort of genius. Lazy bastard."

"Hatake-san, what else happened?" Sasuke continued, ignoring Kakashi's comment.

Kakashi slumped back down in his seat. "Nothing. Except the damn power going off every five minutes. Couldn't even read in peace." He pointed to his orange book lying on the table next to them.

Naruto looked intrigued. "Hey, what book is tha—"

"Did the power go off in the whole building?"

"Nah, just this floor. But no one's up here half the time anyway. The board of directors just turned it into a staff room because they didn't know what else to do with it. At first, I just thought it was Obito playing a stupid trick, but he hasn't turned up anywhere."

Sasuke observed Kakashi closely. "Are you sure there's nothing else?"

"Positive."

"Alright, then. Well, Hatake-san, thank you for your time. We'll continue looking around the building now."

As Naruto as Sasuke stepped out of the door, they heard Kakashi calling out cheerfully.

"Hey, go get the bastard that keeps on turning off the power and slap him for me. And call me if you guys suddenly find Obito's severed head or something, okay? And say hi to Tsunade for me, if she's still there, anyway."

"That guy is seriously too happy about this for his own good," Naruto muttered, shutting the door behind him. "And how does he know the old hag?"

* * *

The day after the incident at the hospital, Naruto and Sasuke had paid a visit to Hyuuga Neji, the medical examiner at the mortuary in the police station.

"Afternoon, Uchiha, Uzumaki."

"Hyuuga," Naruto and Sasuke greeted.

"Well then, let's get started, shall we?"

"Have you looked into the bag yet?" Naruto asked.

"No," replied Neji. "I was waiting for you two. Do you want any spectators? There are a few students here who are eager to be a part of this investigation. It'll be a great experience for them."

Hyuuga Neji was a year older than Naruto and Sasuke, and the youngest coroner on the police force. However, his eyes were sharper than any other examiner twice his age, and no detail escaped him.

"Tsunade wants the case to be top-secret," Sasuke said. "Get rid of them."

Neji nodded, and disappeared from the room for a few minutes. When he came back, he was carrying the white duffel bag they had found at the hospital the night before and two pairs of latex gloves.

"Here," he said, tossing them to Naruto and Sasuke. "Put these on so we don't contaminate the evidence."

"Um, question," Naruto began. "Why are we in the mortuary? I mean, it's opening a _bag_, why couldn't we just do this in one of the crime labs?"

Neji began unzipping the bag slowly and carefully.

"An identical bag was found at the Shinjuku station right after the suicides, before you two were put in charge of the case," he explained. "If they both have the same contents, it should be down here. You'll see why in a second."

Neji put his hands inside the now fully unzipped bag, and drew out an enormous roll. As he did so, the air suddenly became thick with the stench of decay.

"Holy shit," Naruto gagged, and ran out of the room to throw up.

Sasuke scrunched up his nose and helped Neji lay it flat on the examining table, all the while wondering how the pale-eyed man could remain completely unaffected by the smell.

They were opening out the roll and spreading it out on the table when Naruto had come back, looking slightly queasy.

"What is it?" he asked, approaching the table with caution.

Neji prodded the roll with a scalpel . "Layers of human skin."

"Oh, God," Naruto groaned.

"They definitely not from the same person," Neji murmured, "Look at the different textures. I don't know which part of the body all the skin came from, but it's definitely human. Look," he said, pointing to one of the layers. "The stitches are all the same size, as is the length. Each layer is stitched exactly ten centimeters apart from the other, so whoever did this was pretty meticulous. It's identical work. The bag found at the station was the same as well."

"But—there's so many of them," Naruto said, awestruck.

"We're looking at an incredible number of people here," said Sasuke, examining the roll more closely. "Hyuuga, are you sure they're all from different people?"

"That's most likely the case. Like I said, the textures are different all along the roll. If you look here, each skin is a slightly different shade than the one next to it. However, it may be possible that skin from the same person is repeated somewhere along the roll. We have to wait for DNA results to come back from the lab before we can be completely certain."

Sasuke did some mental calculations, before asking, "So, if we count both bags together, there should be skin from roughly two hundred people on this, right?"

"Assuming that each piece is from a different person, then yes. Give or take a few people."

They finished unfurling half the roll, when Neji stopped, having remembered something.

"Follow me," he told Naruto and Sasuke. "I think there's something that both of you should see."

He led them over to another examining table which had an object covered with a large, white sheet on it.

"I want you two to have a look at this," he said, and pulled the sheet off.

Sasuke froze.

Naruto swore under his breath and ran back out of the room.

On the table was a bloody, tangled mess of limbs and heads, sticking out in every angle. It was impossible to tell apart one body from another, and Sasuke had to control his urge to run after Naruto.

Neji remained unfazed as he explained, "These are some of the victims of the incident at the station. There are several bodies in here, all entwined due to… what had happened. We haven't gotten around to separating them yet; a few of us are going to pry them apart later. But look here," he said, outlining an area of skin around one of the limbs in the heap.

There was a patch of skin missing.

"Again, the results will come back from the lab tomorrow, but it's pretty safe to say the skin came from these bodies," Neji continued.

"There aren't enough bodies here for them to account for all the skin patches in the roll," Sasuke observed. "Is it possible that some of the patches came from living people as well?"

"I have no idea. There's always the possibility that there are repeats in the roll from the same person. I'd prefer it if they came from corpses, though. We'd have to check a lot of accident and homicide victims to be sure. But the problem is most of them have already been cremated, or buried by the families of the victims. The remaining one hundred or so are still to come."

* * *

**The world is a jigsaw puzzle. Somewhere, there's a fit for you.

* * *

**

Sakura angrily deleted the e-mail and logged out of her account.

_Who would be sick enough to send these kind of e-mails?_ she wondered, heading up to the rooftop where her and her friends usually ate their lunches together. It was probably the tenth e-mail she received from this 'Suicide Club'.

She regretted going up there though, when she heard their topic of conversation.

"I have a question, guys," Yamanaka Ino, Sakura's best friend, announced. "What do you think of all those suicides that have been happening lately?"

"That was freaky, man," Tenten, a girl in the year above them, said, shaking his head. "I mean, _fifty four_ girls. And they're predicting that more are gonna follow. Can you believe that? I mean _predicting_. God, they're talking like this is some sort of disease going around or something."

"Definitely a cult," piped up a girl sitting next to Ino. "It's _definitely _a cult that's behind all of this."

Ino spotted Sakura. "Sakura, hey! Sit down," the blonde called out. She stood up and pulled out a chair from the stack she was sitting on. "We were just talking about the suicides in the newspaper. What do you think about them?"

Sakura shrugged non-commitedly before taking the seat Ino offered her. "I don't know. I heard though, that there was so much grease, the train couldn't brake. It slipped on human grease and just… rolled over them."

"Ew! Gross!" the girls squealed.

"Hey, girls." Kiba, upon hearing their conversation nearby, had approached them with two other boys. "Couldn't help but overhear what you ladies were talking about. So, you wanna kill yourselves?"

Sakura looked disgusted. "Kiba, don't even joke about it."

"Hey, I'm game," Ino said, standing up.

"_Ino! _Don't be a moron!"

"Come on! Let's get enough people to beat fifty four!" one of the boys piped up.

"One hundred! Let's get one hundred!" Tenten joined in, laughing.

"Can you believe this?" Sakura muttered to her friend next to her, Hyuuga Hinata.

"We can pass out flyers! 'Come join our Suicide Club'! 'Shed your blood with us, we'll die together'!" Kiba proclaimed, leaping on a vacant chair and using it as a makeshift podium.

Sakura froze and stared at Kiba. She remembered the e-mails she had received, saying almost the exact same thing. But they weren't from Kiba, she knew that. They couldn't have been. Did someone send him e-mails too?

One boy stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "Um. Let's not do the train thing though. That's got to hurt. Plus, it was really messy. I mean, come on, someone's got to clean up after us. Hey, how about a drug overdose? I like that idea. I could do that."

"You are such a sissy," Ino spat. "Want to see how it's really done?"

She pushed Kiba off the chair and took his place on it, despite Kiba's protests.

"Oi, everybody! Come watch me kill myself!" Ino called out to everyone in the vicinity. She jumped off the chair and ran over to the edge of one part of the rooftop which wasn't surrounded by a fence, a crowd following her and cheering her on.

Sakura shoved past most of them, not knowing whether this was all one sick joke or whether her best friend was actually going to go through with it. She managed to push her way to the front to see Ino standing right at the edge of the rooftop, her feet teetering over the edge.

"Look everyone!" she shouted out. "I'm going to die now!"

"Ino!" Sakura shouted. "Ino, stop it! This isn't funny!"

"Listen to your lacky, you pretentious bitch," called out someone from the crowd. Watanabe Ami pushed her way to the front of the mob of students and glared defiantly at Ino, who scowled back.

Excited murmurs ran throughout the crowd; it was no secret that Ami and Ino hated each other's guts.

Ami strode right up to where Ino was and stood to her left, level with her.

"You have no intention of going through with this, do you?" she mocked. "Come on. I'll show you how it's done for real."

"Hey!" Kiba shouted out from the group. "Don't leave me out! This was my idea in the first place!" He proceeded to run up to where Ami and Ino were standing. Other students noticed this and followed him, echoing his words.

Soon, every student except Sakura was lined up in a straight line at the edge of the rooftop.

"On three, okay?" someone called out.

Everyone nodded, and held hands with the people on either side of them.

"This is intense, man!" a boy shouted.

Sakura was starting to panic. Were they really going to jump? She looked around warily; there wasn't enough time for her to run down to get help from a teacher or member of staff. What the hell was she going to do?

"Stop it, you guys! This really isn't funny! Please, you guys are scaring me!"

"One! Two! Thr—"

"Wait!" someone said. "Are you serious about this?"

"No you aren't—" Sakura started.

"_Deadly_ serious!" interrupted a girl, tittering at her own pun.

"Okay, start again!"

Everyone chanted together, "One, two, three!"

* * *

On the ground floor, Aburame Shino was cleaning some test tubes in the Science laboratory. Once he dried them, he carried them over to the cupboard they were stored in by the window.

He looked outside at a butterfly that was fluttering past.

Then, he saw five bodies crashing to the ground right in front of him.

After that, he could see nothing but the blood that had splattered all over the windows.

* * *

"Oh my God," Sakura breathed, hot tears springing to her eyes. "Oh my God. Oh my… What have you guys _done_?"

There was no one left on the rooftop, save for herself, Ino, Hinata and Kiba.

Hinata sank to the ground, sobbing.

"God," she whispered in between her sobs. She looked to her left and saw Ino and Kiba standing there, shell-shocked. She stood up and stumbled along the edge of the roof, pushing pass Ino to get the Kiba.

She tried to push him off the roof.

"Hey!" Kiba yelled. "Hinata, what the _hell _are you doing? Stop it!"

"We _have_ to do it!" she cried, tugging on his arm. "Come on Kiba-kun! Everyone else did it! We have to do it as well! We have to join them!"

Kiba tried to break free of her grasp, but she clung on, trying to pull him down with her. "What? No, Hinata, get away from m—"

They fell.

"_Oh God._ Oh God, oh God, oh God," Sakura moaned, covering her face with her hands. This was all just a bad nightmare.

It had to be.

"Sakura?"

Sakura looked up. Ino was still standing at the edge of the roof, back facing her.

"Ino!" Sakura cried out. "Ino! Come down from there! Please!"

"Sakura, why won't you join our Suicide Club?" Ino asked far too calmly.

"Please, Ino," Sakura sobbed, edging closer to her friend. "Ino, come here. Just—just come over here next to me. I'm begging you, Ino, _please_."

"I asked you a question, Sakura," Ino said firmly, ignoring Sakura's pleas. "Why won't you join our Suicide Club?"

"Ino!" Sakura was near hysterical now. "Ino! There's _no_ Suicide Club, please don't do this, Ino, please! Get off of there! I am begging you, step away, just _get away _from there!"

"Suicide Club," Ino said serenely, paying no heed to Sakura's pleas. "Tell everyone about it for me, Sakura. I was one of its charter members, after all."

"_Ino_! Ino, _please_, don't do this. Ino, don't you dare jump, you fucking bitch, _INO_—!"

* * *

**A/N:**

Let the bloodfest continue.

My chapters getting longer and longer. I have no consistency whatsoever.

Shino!

Hohoho, rewritten!

(08/04/2010)


	5. Chapter 5: The Aftermath

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter Five:** The Aftermath

_So lead me into denial, help me forget for a while_

_

* * *

_

"Name?"

"Aburame Shino."

"And what year are you in now, Aburame-kun?"

"Second year."

"So you're sixteen now, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"What did you see exactly, Aburame-kun?"

"I saw approximately five bodies land onto the ground before their blood completely covered the windows, at which point I was unable to distinguish any figures outside any longer."

"I see… Do you have any idea why your classmates did this?"

"No sir, none at all."

* * *

"Look, I know it's hard. But if you could tell me what you know, anything, anything at all, it would really help us."

Sakura looked up at the man—Sarutobi Asuma, she remembered him introducing himself to her.

She hiccuped. She had not stopped crying since Ino had turned away from her and jumped off the roof, and before she knew it, she was alone. Her eyes and nose were red, swollen and puffy from all the crying and her cheeks were sticky from her tears.

Sakura was nothing without Ino.

Ino had always been there for her. _With_ her. Ino was the one who had helped her build her self-confidence when she had none, stand up for herself when the bullying got too bad, find herself when she was lost. With Ino gone, Sakura felt as lost and alone as she felt when she was seven years old and on her own, afraid of the other children in the park who would bully and taunt her about her wide forehead.

She wiped her tears with the heel of her palm on her right hand, and her fingers on the left. Yamanaka Ino would never have committed suicide, never mind leading others to do it as well.

_Her_ Ino would never have done this.

She had to tell this man and his squad everything she heard and saw in that incident. Maybe if she said enough, it would give the police some clues—even one would be good enough—that would give them a lead to help them find whoever was behind this. There _had_ to be someone behind this.

She owed Ino that much.

"It was Ino's idea," she began forlornly. "Yamanaka Ino," she added, seeing Asuma's blank stare.

She paused.

"I didn't think that they would actually have gone through with it, you know? It seemed like one of those things Ino would sometimes say or do for attention. She does that quite a lot. Did that a lot." Here, Sakura chuckled, but it was a broken sort of laugh and Asuma's heart went out to her.

"She went to the edge of the rooftop, and everyone gathered around her. Then she said—she said that she was going to die now."

Sakura let out a choked sob.

"Then this other girl, Watanabe Ami—they always used to compete against each other for attention during school—stupid, immature things, you know?—said that she wouldn't actually do it and stood next to her as if to like, challenge her or something, saying she'd show everyone how it was really done. Then our friend Inuzuka Kiba joined in, and from there, everyone just… just followed them."

Asuma nodded and looked over Kotetsu's shoulder, making sure he got everything Sakura said written down. "Was there anything odd about it? Besides what actually happened, I mean."

Sakura stared at her knees. "They didn't even think about it, you know? They just—they just followed Ino and Kiba's lead, without even thinking about the fact that they were just going to die. It's like they didn't think they would have died."

Kotetsu looked up from his notepad. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that they were talking about a Suicide Club and about dying, but they did so in a joking manner, like they were mocking the suicides at the Shinjuku station, which I totally disapproved of, by the way. The mocking, not the suicides. Even though those were really horrible, too. Anyway, that's why I didn't go and get anyone; I thought they weren't being a bunch of morons, that they weren't being serious until they were all lined up along the edge of the rooftop, but it was too late to go and get anyone."

Asuma opened his mouth to ask another question when he spotted Naruto and Sasuke enter the room. He went over to them, excusing himself from Kotetsu and Sakura.

"Uzumaki-kun, Uchiha-kun," he greeted.

"Sarutobi-senpai," they replied, both scanning the room before turning their attention back to Asuma.

"Look, over there, that pink-haired girl. Yes, her. She was the only one who didn't jump and was there throughout the whole thing. She saw them jump. I have to go now; I'm on call for another case, but you guys can take over now that you're here. I've already covered the bare essentials and Hagane's recorded everything so we can refer back to it in the board room if need be."

"What about the—?" Sasuke began.

Asuma was already out the door.

"That good-for-nothing, lazy—"

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"_What?_" Sasuke said, irked that everyone kept interrupting him.

"I think I'm in love," Naruto said, and Sasuke could practically see the metaphorical hearts bursting from his eyes, to where that girl Asuma pointed out was sitting.

"She's a witness, dumbass. Plus she's just been through possibly the most traumatic experience that a teenager—the key word being _teenager_—can go through, that being seeing her friends and schoolmates jump to their deaths off of a roof."

"And what better way to get over this terrible ordeal than to meet a strapping young man who will sweep her off of her feet! Love has no bounds, Sasuke! Come on; let's introduce ourselves to the future mother of my children."

Sasuke sighed and followed Naruto over to where the girl was sitting with Kotetsu.

For a while, an awkward silence had settled onto the four. Kotetsu was busy scribbling something down onto his notepad, the girl was staring determinedly at her feet and Naruto looked like he was about to wet himself.

Sasuke decided to break the silence. "Excuse me, what's your name?"

Sakura looked up from her feet at Sasuke and froze, and she thought to herself that if she was not mourning the death of her best friend and classmates, she would jump him right there and then.

He was just… _beautiful_.

"H—Haruno Sakura," she managed to get out.

"Right, Haruno-san," Sasuke said, skimming over what Kotetsu had written down, pausing to read Sakura's answers to Asuma's questions.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! Don't forget it!" Naruto blurted out.

Sakura looked confused.

Kotetsu sniggered.

Sasuke sighed. "Moving on. Haruno-san, did you notice any changes in your friends' behaviors before or during the incident?"

Sakura tapped her chin thoughtfully. "When Ino was the last one standing in the line, before she jumped, she turned around and asked me to spread the word of the Suicide Club," Sakura said. "But the thing is, she said it so softly and calmly. Ino's a really loud girl usually," she added, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when all of them were gathering around the edge of the roof, her and Kiba were being really obnoxious, bragging and showing off, calling out to everyone and stuff. But then… when Ino was by herself, she was really like… calm. Like nothing was wrong, like we both hadn't just seen loads of our friends jump off the building and one of them dragging another down with her, too. The whole thing was just awful, yet she just stood there as if everything was fine. It was—eerie, you know?"

"I understand," Sasuke said, glancing over to Kotetsu to make sure he had written everything down. "Is there anything else?"

"No, not really. I—Do you think that this has anything to do with what happened at the Shinjuku station?"

"It's hard to say, Haruno-san. Both incidents are very complicated."

Sasuke surveyed her closely, before deciding that she had had enough for one day.

"Okay then, we're done here. Thank you for your time. You should go home and get some rest."

With that, Sasuke began walking away, Kotetsu packing up his writing material and following him.

Naruto glanced around, unsure of what to do.

Sakura quirked an eyebrow.

"Here," Naruto said, handing her his business card. "You know where to find us if you need anything. Or if you just want a listening ear… maybe a shoulder to cry on…" He winked.

"Naruto!"

"Coming, Sasuke, coming!" he called back, and sped off.

* * *

**Sakura-san, why are you taking so long? Don't you see, we can help you, and be there for you?**

**Come join us. Your friends already have.**

**

* * *

**

"Who are you?" she screamed at the computer monitor. "Who the _fuck _do you think you are? Why can't you just leave me alone?"

The computer didn't respond.

_How did they know what the others did?_

She stood up and made her way to her bed before collapsing on it and bursting into tears. She curled up into the fetal position and felt something poking at her waist.

Sakura sat up, reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out the (crumpled) business card that the loud blond detective at school had given her.

She bit her lip and picked up the phone.

* * *

"So, what's the story behind you and Hatake Kakashi, eh, baa-chan? Jilted lover?"

Tsunade scowled, watching Naruto's grin widen.

"He _is_, isn't he? Oh man, that's… that's _weird_, I mean, he doesn't look much older than me or Sasuke! I know you like to relive your youth, but that's going a bit too far, don't you think?"

"Enough, you complete and utter moron," Tsunade growled, silencing the blond. She had called for a board meeting earlier that day with Naruto, Sasuke, Kotetsu, Asuma, Genma and Gai to go over the facts of the case after witnesses from both the hospital ad the school had been questioned.

"If you _must_ know," Tsunade continued wearily after rolling her eyes. "Hatake Kakashi used to work in this office under me—stop your snickering Uzumaki," she barked at Naruto, who tried to cover his laugh with a cough. "He left a couple of years ago, just before you and Uchiha joined office. He was one of our best."

"If he was so good, why is he working as a night-guard at a run-down hospital now then?" Naruto asked.

"God knows," Tsunade said, rolling her eyes again.

"I remember Kakashi," Genma mused. "He was… pretty damn strange. Always an underachiever, despite having so much potential. Rumor around the office had it that he was next in line for Tsunade-sama's job after she retired. Well, guess that never happened."

"Anyway, that's enough idle gossip," Tsunade continued loudly. "Back to the case, now, shall we? So, where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"The bag?" Tsunade said, looking around expectantly.

"They didn't leave a bag this time, Tsunade-baa-chan."

"Tsunade-sama," Sasuke said, speaking up from where he was sitting at the board table. "I think we'll have to open a criminal investigation, starting with the train suicides."

Tsunade rubbed her temples with her fingers.

"I know where you're coming from here, Uchiha, I do. But the fact is we have no solid proof that criminals were involved."

"What?" Naruto looked outraged. "But baa-chan! How about the duffel bags and the sheer number of people! You can't believe that so many teenagers would do this! Something is definitely going on—"

"And we don't have the evidence that something is," Tsunade cut him off. "Until we find any proof, just a shred of it, we can't take any action. The media would have a field day if we created a fuss about it and nothing turned up."

"Uzumaki, you're just paranoid. You too, Uchiha," Kotetsu piped up. "This is nothing more than a suicide fad. And these kids were probably just highly impressionable."

"What?"

"That Haruno girl, the one who saw everything. I recorded her witness statement. Look," Kotetsu said, sliding his notebook over to where Naruto and Sasuke were sitting. "She said that her classmates just wanted to imitate the suicides and gather more people on it to beat fifty four, like they were trying to beat a world record or something. It's just some stupid teenage phase; it'll pass eventually. We just need to make sure there aren't any more casualties until it does."

"I don't know," Naruto said, flipping one of the pages. "I still think something's going on. I mean, this is _suicide_. It's not a game. Maybe it's been too long since _you_ were a teenager, but I remember what it was like being one, and I sure as hell never would have committed suicide just because someone else did."

Tsunade stood up, and addressed everyone in the board room.

"Well, whatever it is, we can't let a word of this Suicide Club get out, or we'll be having kids dying everywhere. Not to mention what the media will make of this. So remember, not a word, got it?"

Everyone mumbled in agreement.

"Good. Now, back to your offices, all of you."

* * *

"Oi, asshole, it's late. You pulling another all-nighter?"

"Hn."

Naruto sighed.

"Just don't get eye bags. Girls don't like it," Naruto warned.

"Is this why they don't like you?"

"Yes, precisely—_What_?" Naruto did a double-take. "I'll have you know, that I am _extremely_ competent with the ladies and could teach you a thing or two about them."

Sasuke looked up from his computer screen and stared at the blond.

"Well, I could! I'm heading home now. See ya, duck-head." And with that, Naruto left.

Sasuke turned back to his computer. Something just didn't add up, and if he could find the connection, just _one_ bit of proof, one shred—

"Hey, Uchiha."

Sasuke looked at the doorway where Genma stood with that pink-haired girl from the school. Hakuno, was it? Haruno?

"Haruno-kun here said that she had something important to say about the investigation, and that she only wanted to speak to Uzumaki. Where is he?"

"Oh no," she said, timidly pushing past Genma, and taking a seat in front of Sasuke's desk. He really was gorgeous, she thought.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her boldness.

"You're his partner, aren't you?" she asked.

"Sadly. Uchiha Sasuke," he introduced.

"Oh, that's okay. I can speak you then," she said, smiling. "I'm Sakura."

"Hn," Sasuke said, waiting for her to continue. He watched her squirm in her seat for a few seconds, before he barked, "Shiranui-senpai, get out of my office."

Genma's eyebrows shot up to his forehead and he coughed to disguise a snicker.

"Alright, Uchiha. See you, Haruno-kun."

"Thanks!" Sakura called out to his retreating back.

"It's quite late, Haruno-san. Do your parents know you're here?"

"No," she replied, crossing one leg over the other and uncrossing it. "They're away a lot… so… yeah…" she trailed off uncomfortably.

"Haruno-san, what did you want to say?"

Sakura looked at her hands in her lap for a few seconds.

"It completely left my mind back at the school. But when I went home I found another one. Another—"

The phone rang.

Sasuke picked it up, apologising to Sakura before answering it, "Uchiha here."

"_Uchiha-kun?_" Asuma's voice sounded at the other end of the telephone line.

"Sarutobi-senpai. What is it?"

"_We've just found Uchiha Obito's body in the Nakano River_."

* * *

**A/N:**

I suck at romance. Besides, if you saw your best friend and classmates fling themselves off your school roof, I don't think boys would be the first thing on your mind. And I think it's safe to say that _now_, Obito is dead. Pity, I was just beginning to like him.

Rewritten!

(08.04.2010)

PS: So the other chapters are gone (all back to the drawing board for slight tweaking!), but they should be back up over the weekend. Stay tuned; really, I'm not dead.


	6. Chapter 6: If I Were You

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter Six:** If I Were You

_I'd run and never look back_

_

* * *

_

"Wow, Obito. You always had to be the center of attention, huh? Bet you didn't even go out and get the food, lazy bastard."

Naruto looked sideways. "Is that all you have to say, Hatake-san? Your friend's body was just found in a river, and he looks pretty damn gross, if I may say so myself."

Kakashi unfolded his arms. "Well, he _has_ been missing for two days. He hasn't answered his phone, and none of the rest of our friends had heard anything from him, so I didn't really expect that much. Plus, it would be very un-Obito of him not to end up like this. After all, Obito is just one walking, talking Uchiha taboo. Right, Sasuke?" said Kakashi, turning to Sasuke.

"… Don't speak so familiarly to me," Sasuke said, not looking at Kakashi.

Sakura stood there, her eyes never leaving the paramedics as they huddled around Uchiha Obito's corpse, trying and failing to resuscitate him. Today had been one hell of a day, and she couldn't wait to get home and just pass out on her bed.

Kakashi, noticing her observing the scene, sidled up to her and nudged her lightly with his elbow as he said, "Hey, little girl. Isn't it a bit late for you to be out at this time? What would your parents say?"

Sakura looked at the silver-haired man, startled. "Oh no, um… Hatake-san, was it?" she said, smiling politely when Kakashi nodded. "I live by myself most of the time. My parents aren't around that much," she added, seeing Kakashi's questioning look.

"Oh really?"

Naruto looked outraged.

"Hey! Stop hitting on Haruno-chan! She's underage, you pedophile! As part of the police force, I'd like to remind you that you could get arrested for this."

"Uzumaki-san! Uzumaki-san!"

One of the paramedics had suddenly rushed up, and began whispering something in Naruto's ear, silencing him before he could continue.

"Eh, Sasuke. C'mere for a sec," Naruto suddenly said, motioning for Sasuke to follow him, as he and the paramedic walked away from the group.

"Any bags this time?" Sasuke inquired once they were out of earshot from Kakashi and Sakura.

The paramedic shook his head. "No, Uchiha-sama. We had sent a few scouts to look all around. They looked everywhere; under the bridge and even in shallow parts of the river. We didn't find anything."

"And what about the victim?"

"We… weren't able to revive him. His body had been in there for at least a day before we arrived," the paramedic said, bowing his head. "It's being sent to the mortuary for Hyuuga Neji-san to examine now."

Sasuke exchanged glances with Naruto.

"Don't worry about it, Idate!" Naruto said, clapping the young paramedic on the back. "None of us could have known about it, right, Sasuke?"

"Hn. Very well. Good job, Morino; you can go back to your duties now."

"Yes, sir!" And with that, Morino Idate promptly ran back to where the rest of his group were covering Obito's body with a plain white cloth and transferring his body onto a stretcher to bring back to the mortuary.

"I don't understand this at all. This is so frustrating," Naruto said, shoving his hands in his pocket.

"I know," Sasuke agreed, pursing his lips. "We have no clues at all."

Naruto furrowed his brows, turning to his partner. "Hey, Sasuke. What was Obito like?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I didn't really know him very well," he answered. "His parents disowned him when I was twelve, and I hardly ever saw him after that. But he definitely wasn't the type of guy who would commit suicide, if that's what you wanted to know. He was pretty carefree and happy-go-lucky if memory serves."

"Maybe he was back then. But now… I'm not sure, Sasuke." Naruto looked dubious. "I mean, that Hatake Kakashi is one annoying pervert. I would probably commit suicide if I had to be around him all the time."

"Tch. You're just saying that because he got to stand next to the girl and is harassing her right now."

"Whatever, Sasuke. I'm just saying that I've got a bad feeling about that guy," said Naruto in a low voice. "I don't care what the old lady said about him being one of the best in office, there's something weird about him. I mean, if he had such a bright future—" Here, Naruto took his hands out from his pocket to make air-quotes with his fingers, "—then why would he just leave it to be a night-guard at some dingy hospital? And I know we're kind of underpaid, but I'm pretty sure the directors at where he works pay him a pittance. It just—it just makes no sense, y'know?"

"Hn. We'll make sure to keep an eye on him then," Sasuke said absentmindedly, his attention on the paramedics who were loading Obito's corpse into a van.

"Okay. Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you earlier, what's Haruno-chan doing here?"

Sasuke shrugged and turned his attention back to his partner. "She said she had important information regarding the case. Maybe we should let Morino-senpai talk to her. Do you think his brother will know whether he's in town?" Sasuke asked, turning to look at where Idate was standing.

Naruto stared at him like he had sprouted another head.

"Are you kidding? He'll eat her alive! You… you _are_ joking right, Sasuke? Because, you _know_ I actually kinda like this girl. Sasuke? Sasuke. Sasuke, I said—"

* * *

"Yes, shut up, I heard you the first time."

"Okay Haruno-chan. Don't worry. I mean, yeah, Morino Ibiki is absolutely terrifying, but he _is_ our best interrogator. You'll come out of it alive!" Naruto said, trying to reassure Sakura, prepping her up for her cross-examination. "I hope," he added as an afterthought.

Sasuke sighed. "You're not helping, Naruto," he said, deadpanned.

"Next!" a voice boomed out from the interrogation room.

"Right, Haruno-chan. You're up. Just be cool. Cool. Yeah, cool," said Naruto, sweating nervously and wringing his hands. He bit his lip nervously, glancing at the interrogation room and back at Sakura.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Idiot. Shut up and stop acting like you're the one going to be questioned. You'll be fine, Haruno-san," he said to Sakura.

Sakura stood up unsurely, nodded to Sasuke, and followed an officer who had come out of the room to usher her into it.

Once they were inside, the officer led Sakura over to a desk in the centre of the room and offered her a seat. Sakura sat down, and the man retreated back to guard the entrance to the room.

"Well, let's begin. Haruno Sakura was it?" asked a man sitting directly opposite her, shuffling through some papers, not looking at her. His voice was harsh and gruff, and his face was heavily scarred.

"Yes sir," she heard herself reply nervously.

The man looked up. "My name is Morino Ibiki. So, I've looked through your statements, Haruno, and I'd just like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. You don't have to look so frightened," he assured, noticing Sakura's panicked expression, "unless of course, you've got something to hide."

He grinned.

"Have you?"

"N—No, I—I don't, Morino-san," Sakura stuttered.

"Did Uzumaki scare you with horror stories about how I eat children?"

"Possibly," Sakura squeaked, her eyes widening in alarm when the man opposite her let out a bark of laughter.

"Like I said, Haruno, you have nothing to worry about. Just so you know, I'm not going to eat you."

* * *

"See Sasuke, I told you; he's going to eat her!" Naruto said, flailing on the other side of the tinted glass windows as he and Sasuke watched the interrogation underway. "Why the hell did I let you talk me into thinking this would be a good idea?"

"Shut up and just watch."

* * *

"So what do you have to say, Haruno?"

"Um, well I—I've been receiving some e-mails lately." She gulped. "About a Suicide Club. The people who keep sending me these e-mails want me to join it," she said, her voice steadying. "They keep saying all these weird things, things like… like how the world can be lonely, and how everyone has a place they belong in this so-called 'club'. I thought it was just a prank at first, you know? Just some—just some stupid joke that some moron was playing on everyone, sending these sick e-mails around the entire school to spook people, or to make fun of what happened at the Shinjuku station, just like I thought my friends were doing today. But Ino said something about it before she—before she jumped. And when I got home and checked my e-mail, I found another message, and these people—whoever had sent me these messages—knew that she and the others had jumped."

Ibiki looked mildly interested and leaned across the table slightly. "Hm. 'People'? 'They'? You seem to be using the plural form an awful lot. What makes you think it's a group of people behind this?" he asked, tilting his head to his right.

"Well, there has to be more than one person, right?" asked Sakura uneasily, wincing. "I mean, one person couldn't have done all this? Could they?"

Ibiki didn't answer her question, but instead continued by asking, "Who do you think might have sent you these?"

"I don't know—"

"Got anyone with a grudge against you?"

"N—No! Of course not!"

"Well then, why do you think that there's someone behind this? Can't you believe that all of your friends committed suicide out of their own will?"

"No," Sakura said quickly. "I know my friends, Morino-san. They could be pretty dense at times, but I know that they couldn't—_wouldn't_—have done this by themselves. And I don't care what those newspapers or TV opinion shows say, people my age aren't stupid or twisted enough to kill themselves because it might be considered to be some sort of 'trend'."

Ibiki leaned back in his seat, seemingly satisfied with her response. After looking around, he sighed and called out to Naruto and Sasuke via the intercom.

"I don't see why I'm here, Uchiha, Uzumaki. You could have easily asked the girl these questions by yourself," he said, putting his hands behind his head and staring at something on the ceiling.

The door opened, and Naruto and Sasuke came through it.

"This was just a huge waste of my time. Hurry up and get her out of here," Ibiki ordered. "I'm very busy right now. Got examinations to do for the rest of the night."

"Come on, Haruno-chan," said Naruto, helping Sakura out of her seat.

"Thank you for your time, Morino-senpai. I apologise for any inconvenience caused." Sasuke bowed and walked back out of the room, Naruto and Sakura behind him.

"Haruno."

Sakura turned around. "Yes?"

Ibiki didn't take his eyes off the ceiling as he asked her, "Are you scared?"

She hesitated before looking him straight in the eye. "No, sir."

Ibiki took his hands away from his head and went back to shuffling the papers on his desk.

He paused momentarily and looked up at her.

"That's quite brave of you, Haruno. Because I'd be scared shitless if I were you."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke walked out of their office.

"Well. We've talked to Tsunade-sama, our boss," Sasuke began.

"And she feels that it might be unsafe to send you back to your house for the night in light of today's events, especially since you say that you're currently living alone," Naruto finished.

Sakura, who had been sitting on a bench in the hallway whilst Naruto and Sasuke were talking to Tsunade, straightened up in her seat and looked at the two detectives.

"So what's going to happen to me?"

Naruto fidgeted. "Um, well, she thinks you need protection. From the people who sent you those e-mails. Or person, we're not quite so sure at this time. They've already gotten to your friends and we don't know whether or not they're planning on getting to you. We've never handled a case like this before, just so you know. That's why we're going to have to do some very unorthodox things."

"So you'll be staying with Naruto and I until this case is solved," Sasuke said, brushing some dust off his shoulder.

Sakura looked taken aback. "What? No, I can't—"

"I don't remember giving you a choice about it," Sasuke cut in. "We cannot assign police officers to guard your house, because this case is supposed to be top-secret, and we can't do so ourselves, because we have to solve who's actually behind these incidents. Now come on. We have to figure out your sleeping arrangements, and then you'll have to get some rest. We're taking you out of school tomorrow so you can come into the office and show those e-mails that you've been receiving. We've already called your principal at his home, so—"

"Uchiha-san! There's someone on the telephone for you!" a receptionist called out.

* * *

"_Good evening, Uchiha-san_."

"Is this the Bat?" Sasuke asked.

"_I'm glad you remembered me. So I take it that you've found your cousin's body? He was your cousin… wasn't he?"_

"More or less."

"_I'm sorry for your loss_."

Sasuke gripped the phone tighter. "Did you call just to offer condolences?"

A chuckle. "_Of course not, Uchiha-san_."

"Then?"

"_I think it's about time we start working together properly_."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked sharply.

"_I want to meet up with you and Uzumaki-san. In person. I want to be a part of the investigation and help you catch whoever is behind the suicides. However, in order to do that, I'm going to need your trust. And who would trust a nameless faceless person that he had only spoken to over the telephone?"_ He laughed again.

"I still don't quite understand. Where do you plan to meet up with us?"

"_Obviously, you are concerned about your and Uzumaki-san's safety. I understand that perfectly, so we'll be meeting up somewhere safe, of course_."

Sasuke paused, before asking somberly, "Why are you doing this?"

"_A number of reasons, really. But the schoolchildren jumping off the roof was the last straw. The one that broke the camel's back, to be specific_," the Bat replied happily.

"When you do want to meet up?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the Bat's wordplay.

"_Hm, let me see. How does now sound?"_

_

* * *

_

Sasuke stormed out of his office back to where he had left Naruto and Sakura, the former having explained the situation to the teenaged girl, who had seemed to accept her new circumstances. Both of them looked up when they saw Sasuke approach.

"You two," he said to Naruto and Sakura, "come. Now."

"Um," Sakura began unsurely, glancing at Naruto, "can I go back to my house first and get some stuff first?"

"Hn, whatever."

He turned his back and briskly started walking towards the exit.

Sakura furrowed her brow and looked once more at Naruto. "Was that a yes or a no?"

"Yeah. Don't worry about it," he assured her, "we'll stop by your place first."

With that, he turned and ran after Sasuke, sensing that something was wrong with his partner.

"Oi! Sasuke!" he called out, catching up with the dark-haired man.

Sasuke slowed down briefly in order to let Naruto catch up to him. "Where's Haruno-san?"

Naruto glanced behind him to see where Sakura was. "She's right behind us. What happened? Who was on the phone?" he asked, turning his attention back to Sasuke.

"The Bat. He wants to meet us. Now."

Naruto did a double take. "You serious? That creepy, rude, phone-guy? Now? Where's he waiting? I mean, is it even safe? We're supposed to be looking after Haruno-chan, after all. We can't afford to put her in any danger."

Sasuke's pace quickened and Naruto had to almost run to keep up with him. "Outside Headquarters," he said, pushing open the front doors and letting the cool evening breeze ruffle against his hair.

He and Naruto made their way down the stairs, just as the doors burst open again and Sakura ran after them, calling out their names.

"So, where is he?" Naruto asked, not paying attention to Sakura for once.

They had reached the bottom of the stairs, and were standing on the pavement, searching for the Bat. There was no sign of anyone else on the sidewalk.

Sakura caught up to them, panting.

"What… was _that_ all about?" she asked, gasping for air.

Naruto turned and apologised to her. Sasuke ignored them both.

He heard footsteps behind them.

"Good evening, everyone," a pale, dark-haired man around Naruto and Sasuke's age said, approaching the trio.

"Are you the Bat?" Sasuke asked, looking at him warily.

"Yes," the man said, smiling. "Although we would get a lot of strange looks if we ever went out in public and you called me that."

He chuckled, his eyes crinkling.

"You can call me Sai."

* * *

**A/N:**

I'm surprised no one guessed the Bat equaled Sai. And I purposely made him laugh and speak in an 'eerily pleasant voice'. I fail at life.

The "walking, talking Uchiha taboo" line came from fisah. And it's true. And it cracked me up.

Rewritten! (08.04.2010)

I am slowly but surely getting there! And to answer some people's question, the rewriting is nothing serious, just editing it so it flows nicer. It's also to refresh my memory a bit, because _yes_, it has been a hell of a long time since I've so much as touched this.

Oh, ho ho. :)


	7. Chapter 7: The Devil’s Gonna Get You

**Fandom:** Naruto, Suicide Club

**Rating:** M for violence, gore, some swearing, etc in later chapters.

**Pairing:** SasuSaku(?)

**Summary:** "Do you think this is a game? That fifty four school girls committing mass suicide is funny?" There are no happy endings in this one, just in-betweens.

**Disclaimer:** Anything that you recognise does not belong to me. And anything that you don't recognise probably doesn't belong to me either.

* * *

**Chapter Seven:** The Devil's Gonna Get You

_He'll knock on your door and take all your kids away

* * *

_

Sakura stared at Sasuke indignantly.

"_Excuse me_?"

Sasuke appeared indifferent to her death glares, and made his way to the kitchen.

"You heard me," he called back. "You're sleeping on the couch."

"But—"

"Don't worry, Haruno-chan! You can sleep on my bed if you like," Naruto said, coming to her rescue.

Sakura calmed down and smiled at the blond.

"At least chivalry isn't _completely _dead. Thank you—"

"Of course, I'll be on it as well—"

"Naruto," Sasuke cut in sternly, leaning over the counter separating the kitchen from the living room to reproach his partner, "remember what I told you earlier."

Naruto pouted.

Sai snorted. "Good dog."

"Why you—"

* * *

The next morning, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Sai headed down to police headquarters.

"There you two are!" barked Tsunade, coming out of her office and striding towards the quartet. "I've been looking all over for you. Is this them?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in Sakura and Sai's direction.

"Yes."

Tsunade eyed them suspiciously before nodding. "Okay. Uzumaki, you take 'Sai' down to the Interrogation Unit. Don't worry; we just want to establish a few things. Uchiha, you accompany Haruno to the computer guys down in Tech and let them do what ever they do. Meet me back in my office in three hours for reporting. Got it?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"Okay, baa-chan!"

After their boss had left, Naruto whispered to Sasuke, "Seriously, is it me, or is everyone really jumpy today?"

* * *

"Nara, this is Haruno Sakura. Haruno-san, this is Nara Shikamaru, the police office's resident 'computer genius'. Best in the department, some have said."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "As much as I appreciate the flattery, Uchiha, I have to ask, what is this? New recruit?"

"This is the girl who kept receiving e-mails about the Suicide Club. Didn't you get a message saying that we were coming down today?" Sasuke asked.

Shikamaru swiveled around in his chair to face his desk, which was littered with pieces of paper strewn over ever inch of it. "Possibly," he said uncertainly, looking at the pile of illegible notes everywhere. He muttered a, "This is so troublesome" before sifting through each one.

"You should really clean up your desk more often."

"Shut up, nag," Shikamaru muttered, scrunching up various papers and tossing them into a nearby waste paper basket.

After five minutes of what could only be described as an awkward silence, Shikamaru paused and inspected one of the pieces of paper.

"Got it?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"Yeah."

"Tch. Took you long enough."

Shikamaru dismissed the comment. "Whatever. So, the message just says that you were coming down today with a witness. Care to fill me in on the rest?"

Sasuke looked at Sakura expectantly.

"Oh! Um, okay," she said, blinking. "Er, well I've been getting these e-mails. They don't say who the sender is or anything—I think they've blocked that—but they keep asking me to join this Suicide Club, and they know when someone's committed suicide, so…" she trailed off.

Shikamaru nodded and said, "Hm, I see. I'm not promising anything, though. I can't even get pass that dot website you found a couple of days ago, Uchiha. Which reminds me; I heard that that hacker guy that talked to you the other day wants to work with us."

Sasuke grunted in agreement.

"Where is he?" Shikamaru asked.

"Tsunade-sama asked Naruto to take him where someone can ask him a few questions," Sasuke replied.

Shikamaru winced. "Ouch. I heard that Morino-senpai is on duty today. Poor bastard isn't going to make it. What a drag, I kinda wanted to meet him. Anyway, let's get started. Follow me."

Shikamaru got up from his desk and led Sasuke and Sakura to one on the other side of the room where a computer was placed on top of it. He pulled out a chair and motioned for Sakura to sit down.

"Now, Haruno-san, if you could please log in to your e-mail account, that would be very helpful."

Sakura nodded and sat down uncertainly.

As Sakura was occupied in logging into her e-mail account, Shikamaru sidled up to Sasuke and whispered so that Sakura couldn't hear, "I heard she's been questioned by Morino-senpai already."

"Hn."

"How did she fair?"

"She was terrified. As is anyone who gets interrogated by Morino-senpai."

"I see."

"Hn."

"Oi, Sasuke. Seriously, _what_ the hell is going on around here?" Shikamaru whispered to Sasuke, dropping formalities for a moment and using the man's given name. "We've got dozens of kids dying all over the city, and today, you bring some high school girl into my office to do a bit of parental checking on her e-mail account? What's this supposed to mean?"

"Tch, and they call you a genius," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes.

"I _am_ a genius. You're just jealous that I could have easily kicked your ass if I had wanted to when we were training. However, despite my being a genius, I'm not omnipotent. Really, Sasuke, what is all of this?"

"I honestly can't tell you, Shikamaru," Sasuke replied, sighing, keeping his eyes on Sakura, who was filling in her login details at Shikamaru's computer. "We don't know anything at all. This entire case is just one dead end after another; just a string of random events that have too much in common to be brushed off as just coincidences. Haruno-san may be our only lead right now."

"I've got another one," Sakura called out suddenly from her seat in front of the computer.

Sasuke would later note how pale she had gotten after opening the message.

* * *

**Thank you for publicising our cause, Sakura-san.**

**Unfortunately, you did so to the wrong people.**

**We are sorry, Sakura-san. There is no way to atone for your sins now.**

**After all, the police don't stand a chance against God.

* * *

**

"Well?" Tsunade looked at the two young detectives expectantly.

"Not really much more than we already knew about Sai," Naruto said, bored. "He's good, though; he didn't get intimidated by Morino-senpai or anything, and Morino-senpai was _drilling_ him."

"What did he ask?"

"Oh you know, things like how did Sai find the website, why he was so interested in the case, if he knew anything else… things like that."

"And the answer?"

"Sai likes to read forums," Naruto said simply. "Weird, I know, but he gets a kick out of it. I think he must have been locked in his room as a child and not allowed out. But yeah, he reads a lot of forums, and stumbled across one of the site by accident. Then, after the Shinjuku incident, he began actively looking for more in this BBS thing he likes to go on. He just has too much time on his hands, I guess. Which is why he wants to help us. He's bored, he says, and thinks we need the help, which we do, and that he has the means of doing so."

"He's not wrong there," Tsunade mumbled. Raising her voice, she asked, "And he didn't divulge any new information?"

"He says he doesn't have any, not yet, anyway," Naruto explained. "He went into detail about some of the stuff he's already told Sasuke—Morino-senpai is going to send someone up with a recording of the interview later—but nothing new. He's pretty weird, I have to admit, but it seemed like he was telling the truth. There aren't any holes in his story for all anyone could see, anyway."

"Very well," Tsunade said. "How about you, Uchiha? Found any leads from Haruno's e-mails?"

"I'm afraid not, Tsunade-sama," Sasuke said. "The sender is unknown; Nara Shikamaru is still working on it, and will get in touch with us if he finds anything new. However, Haruno-san did receive a new e-mail this morning. It was a death threat," Sasuke added, as Naruto glanced at him worriedly.

"Good thing that she's in your care, then," Tsunade said. "What are the e-mails like?"

"Here," Sasuke said, handing her a folder. "There are printed versions in here. There aren't very many, but they're definitely suspicious, and it's safe to say that whoever sent them knows a lot more about the suicides that anyone else does around here."

"How is the girl coping?"

"She's shaken up, obviously," Sasuke answered. "But she's quite determined to help us as much as she can. She says she wants to find whoever is behind her friends' deaths as soon as possible."

"She thinks that the suicides aren't just that—suicides?"

"No, Tsunade-sama. She insists her friends would have never done this, and thinks that there's a lot more to this case than meets the eye."

"Alright then. Good job, Uzumaki, Uchiha. That's all for today. Now get back to Sai and Haruno; I don't want you two to be away from them for too long, particularly Haruno, considering this new e-mail. You're dismissed. Report back if there are any new findings."

* * *

"Dad! Come take a look at this!"

Asuma snapped his eyes open. "What? What it is?" he asked, panicking briefly before he saw the excited expression on his fifteen-year-old son's face.

"Come on, Dad. Look what I found," he said, pulling Asuma's arm and dragging him to where the computer was placed. "See?" he said excitedly, pointing at the screen.

Asuma squinted. The screen was black, save for a white pattern that kept going around and around, tracing out a circle.

"**Ruins **dot **com**? '_For all those who want to halt the suicides, come here and spread the message._' Wait—what is this?" Asuma asked.

"Read on, Dad."

Asuma's eyes widened. "'_Or more will die. We will all die_.'"

"My friend showed it to me today. Just thought you should know, seeing as how you're in an investigation into the suicides, aren't you? Don't worry, I haven't told my friends that you are."

Asuma's eyes didn't leave the screen. "Are there any more sites like this?"

His son shook his head. "Nope. Well, maybe there are. My friends and I probably just haven't found them yet. But it's gotta be a prank, right? Right, Dad?"

Asuma didn't reply.

* * *

Kakashi was on night-duty, and was reading his Icha Icha Paradise. Again. He was getting up to the part where the man and the woman would have hot, passionate—

The lights went off.

Kakashi swore. "Obito? Is that you?"

Kakashi placed his novel on the table next to him and got up out of his seat.

"Haunting me from the grave now, are you? How classy. Dead or not, Uchiha, you owe me my dinner. So turn the lights back on now, or I'm going to call in an exorcist, who belongs to a religion where moving onto the next plane is very, _very_ painful."

Nothing happened.

Kakashi muttered more swear words until his breath whilst searching for his flashlight on his belt. He found it and turned it on.

"I swear; it's like this shithole doesn't pay its electricity bills or something," he grumbled, walking away from his table outside the fire-exit and making his way to the mains' room.

As he was walking along the corridor, he heard a _ting_. He turned his head to his right and saw that the elevator doors had opened, but were empty.

Kakashi sighed. Those damn kids were going to make the whole damn hospital fall apart if they kept doing things like that.

He took a step into the elevator and saw that someone had pushed the button to go up to the fourth floor. It was the top floor and, coincidentally, also the floor that the mains' room was on. He went up it.

Once he had reached the fourth floor, Kakashi turned left, whistling as he walked down the corridor.

As he passed the staff room, he noticed that one of the windows was wide open—the window that Rin had jumped out of.

He walked over to it and paused, letting the cool air hit his face. He breathed it in before closing the window shut and locking it from the inside. His hand lingered on the handle and he turned around—

—only to come face to face with Obito and Rin.

* * *

In the living room, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Asuma were all gathered around Sai as he began typing away on his laptop.

"Yes, I found the site yesterday afternoon, but didn't have time to properly analyse it until after I got back from the police," Sai said pleasantly, as his fingers danced across the keyboard. "Quite strange, isn't it?"

"So what are you doing?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Trying to hack into the server. I couldn't do anything about the site with dots, but—oh, okay. I got in," Sai told everyone, a smile on his face.

"What's this?" Sasuke asked, pointing to the screen.

"Hm. Seems like we have to enter someone's name," Sakura said, leaning in to get a better look. "Why? Is this like, a petition of some sort? To stop the suicides?"

"Think we can get away with putting a false one?" Naruto asked.

Sai shook his head. "Most likely not. These people are smart; you've seen what they're capable of. I don't know how, but they'd probably know which name is real or not. Besides, if anything happens to a person who enters his name in there, what if the false name we enter belongs to someone else? What would happen to him?"

"So what happens now?" Asuma asked.

"Either someone volunteers or we just leave it," Sai replied.

No one spoke for a few minutes.

"Put my name in," Asuma said after the pause.

"What? No Sarutobi-senpai! You can't! What if… I don't know, but it might be dangerous!"

"Naruto's right, Sarutobi-senpai. What if something happens to you?"

Asuma's expression hardened. "And what's the other option? That we sit around and just watch as this—this _pandemic_ spreads and gets worse? What if we don't do anything? Do we watch more people die and just stand around helplessly? Besides, I doubt anything is going to happen to me. The most is I'll probably get my credit card's PIN number stolen, and well, it's not like I have that much money to steal, anyway."

"Sarutobi-san does have a point," Sai murmured. "The chances of anything happening to him by merely entering his name in the site are incredibly low. After all, there may be other people with his name in the city; how will these people tell him apart from the others? Then again; the suicides aren't orthodox at all, so not all normal rules may apply. There are still risks."

"It doesn't matter," Asuma said firmly. "I have a son and a daughter and I don't want this happening to them. If by entering my full name in a website can help prevent this, then so be it."

No one else said anything to challenge him, so Sai nodded his head.

"I understand," he said. "Sarutobi-san, if you could type your name in kanji in the blank space provides."

He shifted in his seat and pushed the keyboard towards Asuma, who typed in '_Sarutobi Asuma'_ and gave the keyboard back to Sai.

"So what do we do now?" Naruto asked after Sai had clicked '_OK_'.

"We wait."

* * *

**A/N:**

**NB:** About the floor Kakashi got off of from the elevator—four means 'death' in Cantonese (and probably some other languages, but I only know about Cantonese) so yeah. That was me trying—and failing—to be clever.

Oh man, I just _had _to use dub!Shikamaru's catchphrase. It's actually pretty catchy.

**PS:** Nobody get excited about the KakashiObitoRin scene. No, seriously. Don't. You'll just get heartbroken later on.

Rewritten! (09.04.2010)


End file.
